Buildings with mixed uses pose complex tasks for planning. Room heights and floor plans, access and fire protection must be taken into account, of course in addition to the specific user and resident requirements and the specific room qualities as such. In Vienna’s Sonnwendviertel, the “Stadtelefanten”, as the neighborhood house is called after the design by Franz & Sue, is an exemplary building that should set a school.
Cooperative planning
The builders of the robust fair-faced concrete building are three architecture firms that are friends and who have joined forces with two industry-related companies to form a commercial building group. This constellation alone is already extraordinary and certainly contributes to a common understanding in many decisions in the context of cooperative planning.
Diversity of use
The exposed concrete building stacks its uses horizontally on a total of seven floors. There is a restaurant on the ground floor, which is not only reserved for office staff, but also welcomes the public. The association “architecture in progress” and the Austrian Architecture Foundation jointly use the coworking space on the ground floor. The mixture of public uses on the ground floor creates a contact point in the quarter that is also used for events and is used by the neighbors. The upper floors are reserved for offices, while the last two floors contain a total of four apartments, some of which are designed as maisonettes. The continuous ceiling height of 3.20 m throughout the building and open floor plans, which are only structured by a toilet core and a central staircase, ensure flexible usage options. Not just today, but also with a view to the future.
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